


Groovy Kind of Love

by WritingToKeepMySanity



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Engagement, Established Relationship, F/M, Like, Marriage Proposal, Wedding Fluff, Weddings, it might as well be cotton candy, this whole thing is sappy and fluffy, yes groovy kind of love is Jack and Kath's first dance don't @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2020-11-27 19:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20953943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingToKeepMySanity/pseuds/WritingToKeepMySanity
Summary: Wouldn't you agree / Baby, you and me, / Got a groovy kind of love...





	Groovy Kind of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tuppenny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuppenny/gifts).

> for Claire, for no other reason than she's amazing and I write so little cute Jack and Katherine for her :D <3
> 
> Yes, [Phil Collins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWy6yjjMKk0) is kinda sappy and dorky, but hey. aren't Jack and Kath??

"Hey Kath?" Jack leaned his head over the back of the couch to call down the hallway. "Did we get the tickets with your email or mine?" 

Katherine furrowed her brow as she stepped out of the kitchen with two mugs of coffee. "Yours, I think. Why?" 

He huffed as she handed him one of the mugs and settled on the couch next to him. "Can't find the email."

"When'd we get them?" she asked, taking a sip of her coffee and watching him scroll through his emails on his phone. 

"Last week?" he said shrugging. "But I can't find it anywhere." 

“Well, go to the search and type in the train station.”

Jack scoffed. “S’in French, ya think I remember how ta spell it?”

“Okay,” she laughed, setting her mug down. “Let me do it.”

Plucking the phone from his hands, Katherine had every intention of looking for the email with their ticket confirmation.

But the email that was already opened on the screen caused her to pause.

It was an email from a jewelry store she recognized from Brooklyn.

The subject line? _Order Confirmation_.

Jack suddenly seemed extremely interested in his coffee mug. Katherine felt her breath stutter and her heart skip a beat.

It shouldn’t have surprised her—didn’t, if she was honest. They’d been dating almost three years, they’d talked about marriage before. When she told Jack she was thinking about London, and he suggested he come along too, he’d mentioned working extra hours at the theater and the studio so he could save up.

“For the future,” he’d said.

She hadn't pressed him on it then, but she knew what he meant, because she'd been doing the same thing. They weren't just planning their individual futures, but their future together. 

The quiet seemed to stretch forever, when, in reality, it’d been maybe thirty seconds. Short enough time to pretend she hadn’t seen the email, even though every fiber in her wanted to scroll down and see if there was a picture.

Instead, she pretended she hadn’t seen it and swiped back to search for the train confirmation.

“Here it is,” Katherine said, finally shattering the silence, handing his phone back. “What were you looking for?”

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, glancing down at the screen. “I, uh. Don’t remember,” he said with a weak chuckle.

It wasn’t funny, none of it was, but Katherine started laughing. It was too loud for the awkward stretch of silence they’d just sat in, her giggles bouncing off the walls of their little flat.

After a moment, Jack joined her, his deep laugh turning into an almost-cackle immediately.

“Why—why’re we laughin’?” Jack asked, breathing hard.

Katherine swiped under her eyes. “I... I don’t know,” she giggled.

“But ya _do_ know!” Jack insisted. “I know ya saw it.”

“Just the subject line, I swear!” She tilted her head a little as she wrinkled her nose. "And where you bought it, but that's it!"

He eyed her suspiciously. "Didn't see the ring?"

"No."

"Swear?"

She nodded. "Swear." 

He studied her face a long moment, going so far as leaning in close to her, and Katherine schooled her features into something neutral, desperately trying not to burst into giggles again. Finally he nodded. "'Kay, I believe ya," he said, ducking forward and kissing her cheek before going back to his phone.

Katherine took a long sip of her coffee to keep her from asking the questions that started bubbling up. _When did you get it? What does it look like? When are you going to ask? _Finally she asked the least invasive question."But... is it here? In the apartment?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah, got it a couple weeks back."

"Oh," she said, realization coloring her features. "That's why you've been so adamant about getting the mail."

"Yup. Tryin' to avoid a situation like this. Lotta good that did me," he said with a scoff. 

She poked his leg with her foot. "Can I see it?"

Swatting at her foot, Jack shook his head. "No ya can't see it! Not 'til I ask ya. It's hidden, so don't go tryin' to look f'r it, 'cause ya ain't gonna find it." 

Katherine hummed into her mug. "That sounds like a challenge."

~*~

"I mean," Katherine scraped her bangs back from her face. "I don't want to sound like a brat because I know he's already bought the ring, but doesn't Paris seem like an obvious choice?" 

It was almost a month since she'd seen the email, a week and a half since they got back from Paris, and Jack still hadn't popped the question. She'd just _known_ it was all tied together somehow, the Paris trip, the ring order—she'd gone as far to make sure her nails were flawless, even splurging for a manicure at a nail salon down the street.

But it was four weeks later, no ring on her finger, nail polish chipping, and, worst of all, Jack had been right and she hadn't found his hiding spot.

Well, that wasn't the worst. The worst was she hadn't gotten the chance to say yes, which she had been desperately ready to do since she found out he had a ring. 

But admitting Jack was right was pretty far up the list.

"_Maybe that's why he didn't do it then_?" Sarah suggested. "_T__hrow you off the scent_?" 

Katherine huffed, dropping on the couch and putting her feet up on the armrest. "Maybe. It's just... slowly driving me crazy. I hate not knowing."

Sarah hummed over the line. “_I know you do, hon, but I swear, the ring is beautiful, so you don't have to worry about that_.”

“Wait,” Katherine sat up. “_You_ know what my ring looks like?”

“_Of course I do. Who do you think went to twenty-something jewelry stores to do recon via FaceTime, picked up the ring when he _finally_ chose one, and shipped it to London_?”

“Takes a village, huh?” Katherine huffed. “This is so unfair.”

“_Look, Jackie may have a better eye for stuff like this than, say, Spot—who, by the way, is definitely planning on proposing to Race any day now—_”

“No," Katherine said over her. "Anthony fucking Higgins is not getting engaged before me. _That_ is unfair.”

“—_but, you know, he’s still pretty clueless about all that. So I helped. You’re gonna love it.._.” Sarah added in a singsong voice.

“I hate you,” Katherine said, raising a hand to wave at Jack as he unlocked the front door.

“_You’re still going to let me make your wedding dress, though, right_?”

“Bye, Sarah,” Katherine said, following Jack into the kitchen.

"Bye Sarah!" Jack called as she passed him.

"Jack says bye," Katherine said into the phone.

"_Love you both. Buh-bye._"

She hung up, hopping up on the counter and kissing Jack. "How was work?"

He shrugged. "Nothin' new, lotta Londoners freaked out by my accent. What'd Sarah want?" 

Katherine shook her head. "Oh, nothing. We just finally found a time to catch up is all." She decided it was best not to mention the two hours worth of begging she did, asking Sarah not to work through her lunch again so they could talk. "What do you want to do for dinner?" 

"Dunno," Jack said. "None'a our usual places sound good."

Unlocking her phone again, Katherine pulled up the map. "Do you want to try somewhere new? Or—ooh! We could go back to the American themed restaurant. The one where you got a margarita pizza when you ordered a margarita? That place was fun. What do you think?"

Jack didn't answer her, and Katherine looked up to ask him again when her gaze fell to her knee, where a black velvet ring box was balanced precariously. Her eyes flitted back up to Jack, who wasn't looking at her. 

"Is... Is that it?" she asked, almost afraid to pick it up. 

He shrugged a shoulder. "Should maybe open it an' see." 

Slowly Katherine picked up the box, her mind suddenly flashing to some movie she'd watched ages ago, where Amy Adams had been expecting to get engaged, only to open the box and find earrings instead of a ring.

Oh god, she knew she wouldn't be able to keep a straight face if Jack had done something like that, she'd blow it in a second.

Chancing a look up to Jack, she saw he looked far more nervous than he would if he was just giving her any old jewelry (if the first Christmas after they started dating was anything to go by), so, taking a shaky breath, she opened the ring box. 

And nearly forgot how to breathe. 

Nestled in the velvet was a simple gold band with a square garnet in the middle, flanked by a tiny pearl on each side. The design around each pearl made it look like tiny sunbursts. It was... beautiful. Literally breathtaking, she thought, when she remembered she hadn't taken an actual breath yet. It was the type of thing she would've picked out for herself. 

It was perfect.

"The, uh, guy said this ring dates back t'the 1900s," Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Said it was pretty incredible it'd lasted a hundred years, with pearls bein' so fragile an' everythin'. Said it would prob'ly last 'nother hundred years with that kinda durability an' it made me think'a you, goin' through so much that should'a broken you but didn't, an'... Yeah," he finished abruptly, shrugging a little. 

Everyone always said Katherine was the one good with words—she had to be, her whole career path depended on her being good with words—but in that moment, with her speechless and Jack's perfect words, made her wonder if they'd had it wrong all along

"Well," she finally said, picking up his hand and setting the ring box, still open, in his palm. "Are you going to ask me?"

He cracked a smile, moving to stand in front of her. "Depends. You gonna say yes?" 

Looping her arms around his neck, Katherine smiled softly at him. "Should maybe ask me and see," she parroted back at him.

~*~

Katherine coughed, wrinkling her nose as she pushed herself away from the toilet and leaned her head against the cool tub.

Well. That wasn’t pleasant.

She waited for the splitting migraine that started at her crown and trickled through the rest of her body like an egg had been cracked over her head.

Before she could brace herself for it, a water bottle was being nudged in her hand. 

Cracking an eye open, she looked up to see Jack.

She groaned. “How much of that did you see?”

”Just the tail-end’a it. Migraine?”

Katherine paused a moment, running an internal check to see how she felt, before shaking her head. “No. Just feel dizzy. And gross. But no migraine.”

Jack made a sympathetic noise, rubbing her shoulder, sliding his hand down her arm to tug her hand. “Think ya can stand?”

Taking a deep breath, she allowed Jack to gently pull her to her feet. Swaying a little once up on her feet, she lowered the lid on the toilet and flushed, making a face. "Sorry," she mumbled, still feeling dizzy and gross, but not like she normally did after she was sick.

He rubbed her back. "Nothin' to be sorry for. Seen worse afta Spot's birthday party 'fore we left, remember? Think ya gettin' sick or somethin'? Ya never puke 'less it's somethin' serious."

Shaking her head, Katherine leaned against the doorframe, closing her eyes. "I don't know. Maybe I ate something last night that didn't agree with me. I'm gonna go lie down, though, my stomach's still trying to murder me."

"Yeah, go lay down," Jack said, squeezing her shoulder. "You want some ginger ale or somethin'?"

She sighed. "Yeah. Yeah that might help."

He pulled her closer to kiss the side of her head. "Alright. You gonna be okay?" 

Nodding, she pulled away to start down the hallway to their room. "I don't feel as shitty as after Spot's birthday, so I think I'll live," she said with a half-smile.

"Alright, I'll be back in five."

Katherine made a noise of agreement as she nudged the door to their room open, collapsing on the bed immediately. Her head was still spinning, but her stomach had calmed down, more queasy rather than a sharp pain.

As she lay there, she furrowed her brow, fidgeting with her ring, spinning it around and around her finger, thinking. Jack had a point, she never got sick unless she was seriously hungover or had a migraine.

She wasn’t hungover. And she didn’t have a migraine.

A possibility occurred to her and she paused, holding her hand still as she mulled it over. _Definitely not, there's no way I could be, we're careful, I'm regular, I—oh, shit._

Reaching for her phone, Katherine clicked through to her calendar, already counting the days in her head.

After she’d done the math, she sat up quickly, fighting the vertigo as she swung her legs out of bed.

"Hey, Kath, ya want—" Jack stopped just inside the room, watching her as she whirled around the room, yanking things out of the closet and the dresser, throwing everything on the bed. “I... What’s goin’ on?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We have to go home,” Katherine said, dropping an armful of clothes on the bed.

She missed the look on his face as she turned back to the closet. “Uhm. Babe, ain’t we goin’ home? In a month?”

“Yeah, but we have to go home _now_.” Another armful of clothing on the bed. “Where did we end up putting the suitcases?” She turned on her heal before he could answer.

“What’s the difference between leavin’ now an’ in a month?” he asked after her.

“Because," Katherine insisted, struggling to wedge one of their suitcases out of the closet. "I need to get home so this baby isn’t born in London. What if they want to be President? I can’t ruin a child’s future like that.”

“Whoa, wait, back up. What baby?” Jack asked, freezing in the middle of the room, on the way to help her with the suitcase.

Katherine turned to look at him over her shoulder. “Our baby!” she said, as though it was obvious.

“_Our_—‘m sorry, d’we have a baby?”

“Yes. No. Well, maybe. I don’t know. Well, I mean," Katherine huffed, slowly losing steam as the gravity of the situation settled on her and she realized she probably looked crazy. "Okay, obviously, it would be _our_ baby, I know that, but I don’t... actually know if it’s really there.”

“But... ya think there might be? A baby?”

She took a deep breath, the first she’d taken since she’d come to the conclusion. She nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”

Jack’s eyes were wide, and he exhaled loudly, puffing out his cheeks. “Okay. Okay. Joe’s def’nitely gonna kill me."

"Well, I don't know, you know, for sure," Katherine tried lamely, even though there really wasn't any other option. She was two weeks late on her period. "But... like. Pretty sure." Jack still looked like a deer caught in the headlights, frozen in front of her. "Are you okay? I know this definitely isn't the best timing, and we haven't really talked about kids as much, but you're not saying anything and it's freaking me out—"

He shook his head suddenly, cutting her off. "Yeah! No, uh, processin', sorry. Def'nitely thought we'd get a dog'r somethin' first before we had a kid, but..."

"But?" Katherine prompted, not sure what he was thinking and a little afraid to hear what it was.

"Well, 'm scared shitless an' still pretty sure ya dad's gonna kill me when he finds out—"

"_You're_ scared shitless? I'm the one with a tiny human inside me!"

"—but we're gonna have a _baby_," he said in awe. 

Katherine bit her lip against a grin threatening to stretch across her face. "Yeah."

~*~

Katherine toed the grating of the fire escape below the window as the sun started to peek behind the buildings and the city began to wake. There was a slight humidity that clung to her pajama pants and frizzed her curls as she thought, taking a sip of tea, making a slight face at it.

She missed coffee. Tea was barely a substitute; she was just too used to having something warm to drink in the morning.

The past month had been a whirlwind. She and Jack had come home early for the wedding and had the rest of their stuff shipped to the States, so their month had been unpacking and last-minute wedding details and doctor's appointments.

Her hand slipped briefly to her stomach as she thought about the last appointment they'd had. Everything looked good, she was healthy, the baby was healthy, they were on track for a December due date (_"December 24th? No, I'm not having a Christmas Eve baby. That's too cutesy. This kid better come out before Christmas or be a New Year's baby." "Don't think that's how it works, __sweetheart.")_

No one besides them knew about the baby, and they were happy to keep it that way (_"The books say twelve weeks," she'd insisted. "We're barely at eight. Plus with the wedding? It can wait."_) 

Not that they were ashamed or anything—hell, they hadn't ever been any kind of conventional. But they were already so busy with the wedding, Katherine hadn't wanted people—her mother. Medda. Sarah—to worry about her (not to mention Jack was still convinced her father would kill him on the spot if he knew).

But for now, the morning sickness had mostly passed and she wasn't even showing. They could tell friends and family after the wedding. 

The fire escape creaked, and Katherine looked down to see Jack pulling himself up on the bottom rung. Snorting, she twisted around to pick up the other mug she'd set on the desk under the window, filled with actual coffee.

"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding," she called softly as he neared. 

His head snapped up, and he scoffed, seeing her. "Well, wasn't 'zactly plannin' on seein' the bride."

"Is that why you're sneaking up the fire escape instead of going through the front door like a normal person?" she asked, handing him the cup of coffee. Jack shrugged. "What'd you forget?"

"Who says I forgot anythin'?" He asked defensively. She raised an eyebrow at him, nodding towards the mug in his hands, her message clear. If she knew him well enough that he'd try to come over here before the wedding, she knew he was only there because he forgot something. "Fine. Forgot m' phone. An' ev'ryone an' their uncle's gonna be callin' today."

Katherine's eyebrow remained raised. "Why would you want your phone, then? You won't have to deal with them if you don't have it on you."

"So's I get the satisfaction'a hangin' up on them myself. An' 'cause I ain't convinced Race knows where we're even gettin’ married."

She hummed in agreement. The venue was hard to miss, what with her parents footing most of the wedding bill, but Race had forgotten his own address more times than she could count. Part of that could be blamed on his tour schedule, but really. He and Spot hadn't moved since sophomore year.

They sat quietly as the sun rose, sipping their drinks. After a few minutes, Jack stretched out his leg to nudge her foot. 

"How ya feelin'?" 

Katherine turned her emotions over in her head, thinking. "I feel... Contemplative."

"Yeah?" 

She nodded. "We're not getting married too young, are we?" she asked after a moment.

"We're twenty-four. Plenty'a people get married younger'n that." That was true. Her dad had been twenty-two and her mom was twenty when they got married, and what she knew of Jack's parents, they'd been even younger.

"And we're not getting married because I'm pregnant?"

"Asked ya to marry me _way_ 'fore we knew you were pregnant. So, no." That was also true. She was at seven weeks now and Jack proposed six months ago.

"That's what I thought, too," Katherine agreed, nodding decisively. 

He nudged her foot with his again. "Ain't havin' second thoughts are ya?" 

She shook her head quickly. "No, I'm not. Which is weird. I should be having second thoughts. I've never _not_ had second thoughts about anything. But never about you." 

Jack cocked his head a bit. "'Kay, ya lost me 'bout halfway through, but I think that was in my favor."

Huffing a laugh, Katherine shook her head. "_Yes_. I never had second thoughts about you. Well. Once," she admitted after a moment, taking a quick gulp of tea, hoping he wouldn't ask more of it.

Clearly, her hope was in vain. 

"_Oh_, really?" he said, eyebrows up by his hairline. "Wow, on our weddin' day, all the secrets're comin' out, huh?" She shook her head. "C'mon, ya can't just drop that on me an' not say anythin'," he wheedled. "It's my _weddin' day_, Katherine."

"It's mine too," she reminded him. "And as the _bride_, I ask that you not make me finish this conversation."

"But this would be good f'r both'a us, 'cause I get the story, an' you don't have to hear me ask 'bout it ever again."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed. He leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees, looking at her expectedly. Katherine rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. The first Valentine's Day after we met. You never made plans, I don't even remember if you texted me that day, so I—_may_—have had second thoughts then. Clearly I'm still bitter, what with traveling Europe with you, carrying your baby, and marrying you today."

He didn't take the bait, instead furrowing his brow as he thought. "First Valentine's... Kath, I was gettin' my cast off that day. M' arm looked all weird an' shit, didn't wanna take a girl out on Valentine's with it lookin' like that."

"Oh yeah," she said, wrinkling her nose. It'd been—wow, four years and then some since that Valentine's Day, but she vaguely remembered him getting his cast off around that time. "Well, you also didn't wish me happy birthday either."

Jack snorted. "Babe, it'd been, what? A month an' a half? I don't think I knew ya last name then, forget'cha birthday."

"Yeah, okay," Katherine said. "It was a long time ago, I only brought it up now because you made me." 

Jack patted her knee, faux-sympathetically. "D'ya feel better now? Got that all off ya chest?"

"Yes, I do, thank you," she said, rolling her eyes before twisting to set the rest of her tea on the desk. "What about you? Anything you need to tell me before we get hitched?"

He shrugged. "Oh, ya know. Just the secret lovechild, nothin' like havin' second thoughts 'cause ya forgot my birthday."

Katherine made a noise that was half-groan, half laugh. "You're never going to let this go, are you?"

"Prob'ly not."

"At least we're starting our marriage off with honesty."

Jack laughed, standing from his spot on the steps. "Speakin' of. Thanks f'r the coffee, but I should head back. Don't want us gettin' any more bad luck as it is."

"Oh, hold on," she said, twisting back around to duck through the window. 

Unplugging Jack's phone from its spot on the desk in their shared office space, Katherine ducked back out, holding the phone in her outstretched hand. "Here. You already have texts. Ignore away."

He huffed a laugh, looking at the screen. "Can't. It's Davey headed over to Crutchie's now. Need get back 'fore he gets there."

"Sarah's on her way, too," Katherine said as her phone buzzed as well and she pulled it from her pocket to look at the screen.

"Damn that Jacobs' punctuality." She laughed as he pocketed his phone and stretching his arm past her to drop his mug on the desk. Bracing a hand on the windowsill next to her, he ducked his head to kiss her, softly, sweetly, tasting like coffee. "I'll see ya at the altar?" he asked, pulling away and nudging her nose with his. 

"Mm," Katherine hummed, kissing him again. "I'll be the one in white."

**Author's Note:**

> if you've been with me for a while, you know that the lil baby is one Pete Kelly and he definitely comes into the world on Christmas Day :D
> 
> The movie Katherine's thinking about is Leap Year. Pretty good movie (from what I remember like five years ago XD) with Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, and Adam Scott. Check it out if you can!!
> 
> [Check out Kath's ring here!](https://www.brilliantearth.com/The-Elysia-Ring-Rose-Gold-BJB53104/) I made up the entire backstory with it, though, so be warned. I'm going for symbolism, not gemstone accuracy people ;)
> 
> sappy sappy sap. fluffy fluffy fluff. I'm going into Christmas-fic mode now and wanted something cute to post before then! I don't even remember how this started or when Phil Collins came into it, but I hope you enjoyed it! I'd love to know what you think!
> 
> xx


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